Machine Gun Expo Is Down-Home Americana Gone Ballistic

Story Rush, a kindergarten teacher from Greenwood, AK, fires an M1919 Browning .30 caliber machine gun on the first night of OFASTS. "It is such an adrenaline rush," she says after stepping back from the weapon. It's her first time at the show, which she attends with her husband and 8-year-old son. "I grew up hunting with my dad so guns are nothing unusual for me," she says.

Ryan, April and Olivia Ireland from Neosho, MO have their portrait taken with automatic weapons. "Everyone has a bucket list," April explains enthusiastically. "[My husband] wanted to jump out of a plane. I wanted to use the biggest guns to blow up a car. When you see your baby the first time as a mother you have that adrenaline. That's what I had when I was shooting."

Connie Moser, a local singer from the nearby border town of Neosho, Missouri, sings the national anthem before shooting commences.

An OFASTS attendee removes his shirt due to the extreme temperature. On the weekend of the shoot, the temperature in Wyandotte reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pastor Mark Buzzard prays over the event and its participants before the first round of shooting. "Even though this is something that they [Mike and Laura Friend] offer to you for your enjoyment ... Jesus Christ is going to be the foundation of this shoot," he tells the crowd. "Please plant seeds in [the participants], father, that would be a landmark that would point unto you," he says. "Amen," the crowd echoes back. Mike Friend, the event's organizer, aims to create an environment that reflects his devoutly Christian lifestyle. "This is a family event in the Bible Belt," says Friend. "I want the event to have a tone that makes everyone feel comfortable." For this reason, he eschews the use or sale of alcohol or the use of sexualized marketing techniques at OFASTS.

Attendees and exhibitors in a firing position that specializes in sniper rifles.

Targets on the OFASTS range on the final day of shooting.

Spectators look on as a series of planned explosions kick off the day's first round of live fire. An explosive ordnance team placed dozens of charges throughout the range for effect.

A young boy is supported as he fires a fully automatic machine gun. Safety regulations at OFASTS are extremely tight with all shooters carefully monitored by exhibitors.

Members of the L&L Machine Gun's exhibition team joke on the firing line.

Carl Schiffman, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, mixes bags of explosives with his team the night before the shoot. His company, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sponsors OFASTS each year and lays dozens of explosive charges throughout the range in order to enhance the experience for shooters.

Mike Friend, the organizer of OFASTS, is harnessed into a helicopter out of which he'll fire a machine gun at explosives-laden cars.

A young girl peers into the turret of a tank outside the shooting range. In addition to the tank, organizers brought an armored personnel carrier, a half-track troop carrier and a military helicopter. All were operational and available for rides for $70 per person.

Spectators and shooters enjoy hamburgers and hot dogs during a break in shooting.

OFASTS attendees hang out in a tent near the firing line.

OFASTS exhibitors and attendees camp on the ridge line behind the shooting grounds. "This event is about camaraderie and people being together," explains Kendall Beaver, a gunsmith who currently lives in Gramby, MO. "This brings people a lot of joy and they look forward to it all year."

An exhibitor from L&L Machine Guns loads rounds during an evening shoot.

“I grew up in a congested and heavily regulated area of the northeast and consequently had little exposure to guns and gun culture,” says Muller. “What was happening at OFASTS was unlike anything I’d seen or experienced.”

Muller has seen a lot of guns. Between 2009 and 2012, he lived in Sudan documenting the tense transition from civil war to independence for the South — even now the peace agreement on which independence rests remains fragile and not without skirmish. While Muller pursued his long-term story in Sudan, he was also thinking of gun culture in the United States, specifically the recreational use of machine guns. That’s when OFASTS came on his radar.

Held annually in Wyandotte, Okla., OFASTS is — alongside the Knob Creek Machine Gun Show (Kentucky) and the Big Sandy Shoot Out (Arizona) — one of the largest machine gun shows in the country. Over a hundred vendors trade machine guns there, with prices in the thousands and sometimes in the tens of thousands. Though prices are high, the opportunity for machine gun enthusiasts to shoot others’ weapons is a big draw.

Whether your fancy is the M248 SAW, which fires 750 rounds per minute, or the FN M240B, which is the U.S. armed forces current-issue medium machine gun, there’s a firearm for everyone. There’s also a dynamite crew on hand to beef up the explosions. At $10 a day or $18 for the weekend (under-10s get in free), it’s good bang for your buck. Gun and magazine rental prices vary.

“Given the politicized nature of the gun discussion, I wanted to better understand this fundamental element of our national ethos,” says Muller, who was skeptical of others’ viewpoints on gun issues and wanted to see OFASTS for himself.

South Sudan and Oklahoma are extremely far apart in both geography and culture, yet Muller says that generally communities’ proximity to state security institutions shape their affinity for and possession of firearms. OFASTS is the type of exposition special to rural America; permits for machine gun shows aren’t very likely to be passed out in urban areas.

“People living in the periphery are often more likely to possess weapons as a means of insuring their personal security. This propensity increases, of course, if the isolation in which they live is, or is perceived to be, fraught with danger,” says Muller.

OFASTS culminates in “Kill the Car,” a moment when every gun-wielding attendee takes aim at a free-wheeling, explosives-packed car rolling down a hillside. Within a minute, tens of thousands of bullets pepper the condemned beater. Heaps of empty shells scatter the mainline shooting gallery.

During Muller’s stay, attendees ranged from lawyers and investors to IT experts and even an unnamed former Apple executive.

“Owning legal machine guns is an expensive hobby. Most of the gun owners are pretty well-heeled,” he says.

For those accustomed to guns, especially automatics, events like OFASTS can be as welcoming and innocuous as a state fair. For outsiders, the shows and the photos from them can be quite shocking and, in some cases, disturbing.

“I find it somewhat peculiar when people seem surprised by the ongoing American love affair with guns. The country was acquired in a way that required guns. Expansion of the American frontier was a severely violent process in which the gun played a central role, its sanitized memory has since become a pillar of white American nostalgia. It represents notions of freedom, individualism and valor and all of those things are tied to patriotism,” says Muller.